Karl Josef von Bachmann

Karl Josef von Bachmann (3 March 1734-3 September 1792) was a Major of the Swiss Guards of the Kingdom of France.

Biography
Karl Josef von Bachmann was born on 3 March 1734 in Nafels, Switzerland, and became a mercenary in the service of the Kingdom of France as a Major of the Swiss Guards. He served in the Seven Years' War and in 1792 became the owner of a Swiss Guards regiment, holding the rank of Marechal du Camp in the French Army while also holding the rank of Major of the Swiss Guards.

On 10 August 1792, Bachmann and the 950 Swiss Guardsmen at the Tuileries Palace defended King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie-Antoinette of France from 20,000 armed revolutionaries under Antoine Joseph Santerre and Frederic Rouille, including defected Gardes Francaises and National Guard troops. Bachmann and his men were eventually overrun, having been badly outnumbered. Bachmann and his men were tried in a court in September for fighting the "majesty of the people", but during the September Massacres of 1792, a lynch mob stormed the courtroom where they were being tried. Bachmann was executed by guillotine on 3 September 1792.